Thursday, December 1, 2016

Everything We Know About Mega Man in 2017 (So Far)

As Mega Man's 30th anniversary nears, let's take a look back at everything confirmed so far for 2017. After the jump, you'll find a brief description of each event with related posts.

1) New Animated Series

Man of Action Studios (Ben 10, Ultimate Spider-Man) are currently producing a new Mega Man animated series in collaboration with Dentsu Entertainment and DHX Media. The 26-episode series follows Mega Man's new alter-ego Aki Light, a school-boy robot, living in Silicon City. Traditional Mega Man friend and foes are anticipated to appear alongside new characters. The show will air on Disney XD in North America.

At least one new Mega Man game for mobile phones is in production with an anticipated launch any time after April 2017 (note: the game was originally planned to launch BY March '17). Unlike Rockman Xover, the title is planned to launch in multiple countries in 2017. As of this writing, no information about the game's content exists.

This one is up in the air but it's something certainly on Capcom's radar. Back in March, Capcom launched a survey asking fans if they'd like to see more collections (a la Legacy Collection) and a hypothetical Mega Man 11. The results of the poll remain private, but with the franchise's 30th anniversary in full-swing soon, perhaps we'll learn a little more?

I'll try to keep this post updated with news as it comes in. For now, this is 2017. I'm cautiously optimistic about the year ahead. I don't think it's possible to please everyone, but I'm sure we'll seeing some interesting things develop over the next 12-months.

No, I guess it doesn't have to be a SNES style game, but I wouldn't think any less of it if it were SNES styled. Given Capcom's lack of interest in Mega Man, I'm not sure they'll be willing to put a lot of effort into an X8 styled game. (X8 should have been twice as long as it was IMO.) So a sprite based game, be it SNES style or something else, may lead to a better game overall.

Mega Man X isn't all that popular, it won't sell too many copies unless they completely destroy what makes a mega man game a mega man game. The better the graphics, the higher the budget...the higher the budget, the more copies they need to sell to make a sequel.

I would personally prefer that they make an SNES style game, add Axl, make him play like model A from ZXA, add more content, maybe 12 mavericks instead of 8? maybe add more green biker dude?

Even an episodic style game would be better, maybe an open world 2D game like MMZ, with more areas to explore with each chapter released?

The thing is, when you demand higher graphics, the likelyhood of a sequel goes down the toilet. I'd rather have a 3x as long SNES style game and likely have sequels, than have a beautiful hand drawn game that is 30 minutes long and go another 10 years without an X game.

even PS1 style is a lot of money to spend. drawing all those mavericks? the final bosses? animating everything? it's a lot of money to go into the budget!

I'd rather see them implement the neutral armor as a mainstay and allow you to mix and match all the abilities from every X games' armors, and to give Zero multiple weapons, keep X6 or X7's upgrade system, keep the new game+ mechanic introduced in X7, allow you to play as navigators, make mac playable?

with the SNES style game, you can increase scope, use episodes to gauge interest, and use DLC to introduce more content. it's the best strategy to keep X alive.

If interest spikes, then they can roll out the super HD X game that will put the series back into hibernation.

Yeah your probably right that it is more the art style than the actual design itself. I'm just assuming that whatever new game they potentially make would prob be based off of and therefore sharing whatever art style the show ends up with.Only time can tell I guess.

I agree with you, but my opinion is that the look isn't legit specifically for classic Mega Man. If it were art for a series called Mega Man Cyber Wars or something, then I would be more accepting of it. So I will agree with the first Anon that I would like to see this art style absent from Mega Man 11. Yes, the actual quality of the game is what's most important, but I think that Aki Light and Friends should be its own series separate from classic Mega Man.

If they do make a megaman 11, I would hope it would be more akin to megaman 8 than the early games. More detailed graphics and animated cutscenes. 9 and 10 were great but we can't stay in that era forever ya know.That is of course unless they are planning a complete reboot into the new gaming era which would be interesting too, but I kinda doubt it.

Megaman 8 had so many neat interactions i would love to see come back. Rush-cycle, swimming, custom charged shots, and the beautiful sprites. I would kill for another title like it with Forte and Blue returning as playable.

yes, then another 15 years or so of hibernation. why can't the fanbase be realistic?

sure, a nice looking mega man with hand drawn graphics with loads of content would be fantastic. but the budget would be through the roof for a game with a small actual fanbase.

MM9 and 10 were lower budget games... and 9 sold well enough to warrant a sequel because a lot of non-fans bought it because of the hype train and nostalgia. MM10 was probably just the actual fans buying it, so that's why no MM11 followed.

The games are too hard for casual fans, and no one wants to feel like a baby playing the game on the impossible to kill yourself easy mode. They should really make "normal" the baby easy mode, easy basically god mode, and add greater difficulties for actual fans to actually enjoy the game.

we need to ask for low budget games, because that's the only way to keep mega man alive. Most people don't like the games, and if they were to make a game everyone liked, it wouldn't be mega man. no matter how pretty you make it, people who don't like mega man games will not like it.

Yeah, I am really hoping for ZX3. It would be great of Capcom would release it for consoles and further explore the Metroidvania elements that it has been toying with in the previous ZX games and Zero 1. If they were able to make it a really epic Metroidvania while retaining a lot of the key Mega Man gameplay elements, I think that it would sell really well. I mean, there hasn't been a significant Metroid or Castlevania game in a while, and games like Axiom Verge and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night get a lot of attention. So I think they could capitalize on that by releasing ZX3 as a large-scale Metroidvania. I'd buy it for sure.

I welcome new game for the series hell anything game wise would be nice since we have had years without megaman.

But still i cannot fathom this new design catching on at all with vets of the series. It just looks not megaman not even close sure maybe its to peak the interest of the new generation and hell it may spawn a new era in megaman games and even possibly the revival of Legends 3 but even if all that comes to pass this new "megaman" wont be the megaman i know and love

But besides that i am excited to see more megaman stuff some along always nice